Weekend bliss!

Best part of yesterday: Easy sub assignment with students I actually subbed for long-term earlier this year. Nice to see them and be mostly happily welcomed back. =D Also, back was feeling MUCH better for most of yesterday until spending 6+ hours playing poker. BUT I came in 2nd in two of the 3 games (and hubby won the 3rd)! That's actually really good for me, haha.

Best part of today: Playing on Polyvore while resting my slightly-recessed back, then going to the new Dave and Buster's with friends. I will admit, initially I was annoyed as heck about the wait for food service (2 FLIPPLIN' HOURS!), and we chose to go play games instead - and almost every game had a wait, so I started out a little grumpy. BUT the wait wasn't too long, and we started with one of my favorite (shooting hoops challenge), which immediately lifted my mood and I had a better attitude. We played until we were basically out of credits, then since we were hungry, we went to a nearby burger joint that Bobby and I A-DORE. Our two friends hadn't tried the place before, so it was fun to introduce them to the place (it's our typical "Oh, you haven't tried them? Let's go there!" restaurant for friends from out of town, but we'd assumed they had tried it because they live around here, haha.)

My back is mostly feeling better, so tomorrow (er, today) I'm FINALLY going to get back on track with walking Daisy for her daily loop. My back being strained again has NOT been helpful to that, and it reminds me also that I need to get back on track with watching what I eat. We had a "cheat week" that's turned into 3 weeks now. Oops. So we need to get back on track with that. =/ I'm actually looking forward to being able to take Daisy out for a nice walk together! =D

2 days' worth of happy

When your back is hurt and you can't do much, it's hard to find the blissful bits (other than "Yay, back is in only MILDLY excrutiating pain today!"). BUT I PERSEVERE, FOR YOU. Well, really for me.

Yesterday the best bit was lying on the floor to help my back, and using that time to play with my dog, who is bored due to my not walking her very long due to my back. We both had fun, and it made me smile :)

Today I felt strong enough to shower and run a small bank errand! Whoo-hoo, clean AND left the house! Best bit today, though, was The Hubs getting transferred to a new area in his dept, which he's happy about. Could mean small raise in 3 months if he proves himself, too!

So they're not much, but they're there. It really does keep my spirits up, too, to make these little notes about what's good about each day, a little less cynical energy. :)

Weekend of bliss: Santa Barbara

Sunshine, smell of the ocean, beautiful surroundings, spending a full weekend with an old dear friend, AND meeting newborn babies...

Pretty darn blissful weekend. =D

Also: Would like to win the lottery so I can move to Santa Barbara kthnx.

ROAD TRIP WEEKEND! With a friend who lives in NYC and came out to see another friend of his who had a baby this week - and wanted company on the trip (and I am an excellent travel companion, btw)! I'm working on a playlist for the trip - and rediscovering music I forgot I had, haha. I love having all my music at my beck and call, but admittedly I tend to get addicted to about 10-20 songs and listen to them ad nauseum. This usually contains at least one "Glee" song at any given time (right now I'm loving their version of "Physical" and, strangely, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" which I normally can't stand).

SO PUMPED FOR THIS WEEKEND. OMG. Will hopefully have lots of blissful moments to share when I get back, although I will miss my husband and my dog (possibly not in that order ;D).

Oops!

I'm behind 2 days now, CRAP.

Well, Wed. had me a little blue, but one thing I really enjoyed was walking by a flower garden and being smacked with their beautiful smells all at once. It only lasted a second, but it was an out-of-nowhere delight. :)

Yesterday I finished my mother's day cards and mailed them out. I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I felt good while making them, too.

This weekend is going to be full of awesome, as I'm road-tripping with a good friend I never see to a town I've never been to! I also get to meet his friend's new baby girl, which I'm excited about, too, 'cuz I love me some babies. I'm making a happy 1st mother's day card and picking up a small gift for the new mom as well :) It's shaping up to be a pretty sweet weekend!

Today's highlight: New episode of Glee. It brought the LOLZ.

That's about it. =/

I'm fearing redundancy.

It's weird... I started this project to record MY "daily bliss", but some days there really isn't a truly great moment. Some days are just meh. Not bad, but not great. Then the few "daily bliss" moments I DO have seem to be repetitive.

I might be expanding my entries to include things that might inspire a little happy in other people soon... what that is, though, will have to wait and see what I stumble upon. =)

So, for now, here's what brought me a little happy:

• Taking a walk with The Hubs. We're starting a plan to gradually increase our walking health, with the hope to walk a 5k (my first!) in September to benefit AIDS research. So our distance is only about a 1/2 mile loop, but we're REALLY out of shape. Plus it benefits our dog, too - Daisy gets some sunshine as well, and as we walk longer distances, she'll get in better shape, too (and more tired out by the end of the day!)
• Planning my road trip this weekend with my friend J. Turns out we'll be passing "the Dutch capital of America" on the way down, so I'm hoping to convince J that we NEED TO STOP THERE. There's a Hans Christian Andersen museum! I love his fairy tales!
• El Pollo Loco. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM. They put crack in their skin or something, it's such freaking delicious chicken.
• Got a half-day sub call - it was a teacher I've subbed for before, and this time I actually got to meet him. He likes my work, and asked for my number and name to make sure he could request me in the future. *beams @ compliment*

Huh. Guess my day was better than I thought - which is the whole purpose of this blog! To recognize the good moments, so I don't just focus on the negative!

Low day on the bliss-o-meter

Today wasn't necessarily a BAD day, it just wasn't great. BUT the goal is to record the happy moments, even if they're small and seemingly insignificant.

Today's moment of bliss were two: Talking to my friend J, who I'm taking a weekend road trip next weekend to Santa Barbara, CA (I've never been, so I'm very excited, and J lives in NYC so I'm also super-excited to spend a couple days with him), and starting my mother's day cards. Unfortunately, My idea didn't work out so I have to toy with it a little more... and I wasted 2 pieces of cardstock trying to figure it out. ARGH!

Either way, still glad for the two good moments today. =)

Daily Bliss - 5/1/10

This is, like, crazy birthday week. As I mentioned before, last night was The Hubs' birthday poker night, where we also celebrated a friend's earlier birthday and another friend's upcoming birthday. Today we celebrated the earlier birthday friend - he wanted to have sundaes at his house, followed by Monster Mini-Golf . So we did that today! It was actually a LOT of fun, and I did pretty darn good at the mini-golf for once. After the golf, we went to dinner with another friend and his wife at the Old Spaghetti Factory next door, which was also a nice time. =)

So to ADD to the birthday craziness, my baby brother turns 18 today! He's a legal adult! It's INSANE to me - I'm over 10 years older than him, so I literally wiped his butt and fed him bottles, helped him learn to walk, taught him how to swim... I mean, he's my brother so he's not my CHILD, but I remember all of this. I'd post pictures of how adorable he was as a baby and shit if it wouldn't embarrass the shit out of him. (Might do it on Facebook, though, haha.) I tried to call him, but he's a dork and doesn't have his voice mail set up, annoyingly. Meh. Still awesome and amazing that my youngest sibling is an almost-fully-legal adult. I'll be more excited when I can take him to a bar for his first drink - well, legal drink, anyway. ;p

Daily Bliss - 4/30/10

Today was a GOOD day. Granted, most of that is due to:

• not having to work so I could focus on prepping for poker night (I felt like June Cleaver! I just needed the crinoline to wear with my one 50's-style dress, haha)
• baking cupcakes, making homemade garlic dip (Good, but OMG GARLICKY - thank god everyone had some!), and making mini biscuit pizzas that were quite tasty!
  
• The apartment being clean. Man, I love how nice a clean home is! Makes me wish I didn't just clean for company (but it also motivates me to have company over more often, lolz)
• We had company! Bobby's friends came over, and there was lots of laughter (including a 3-minute session of friendly teasing my ninja-like poker skills - I tend to sneak up out of nowhere and win monster hands, and they were mimicking me saying things like, "Oops, did I flop a royal flush? Silly me!" You had to be there, but it was so funny my sides hurt.) Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I made sure that each of the birthday boys (we had two this week and have one next week amongst our guests tonight!) had a cupcake with a candle to blow out. It's my firm belief that everyone should hear "happy birthday" and get to blow out a candle on their birthday (or soon before/after).
  

All in all, a GOOD day. I love these kind of things, where the night wraps up and we're just pleasantly full of cheer after hanging with our friends and/or family. =)